Experience versus authority: science, musical theory and observation in Grocheo's De Musica and intellectual upheaval in the 13th century

Newly-translated Aristotelian scientific texts provoked controversy and censure in thirteenth-century Paris, pitting observation against written authority. An interdisciplinary team (embracing musicology, history of mathematics, and medieval thought) will consider how this new emphasis, illustrated by Roger Bacon, was applied to secular and liturgical music by Grocheo (fl. 1300), perhaps the most innovative of all medieval musical theorists and a close observer of contemporary culture. A monograph on Grocheo will survey his contribution to the upheaval of thirteenth-century thought in music, science, philosophy and theology, and include a critical edition with translation of, and commentary upon Grocheo s De Musica.